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travel / adventure zone
| The Adventure Zone |
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Whale of a time
For millennia, grey whales have been making their annual migration from
winter breeding grounds near Baja, Mexico, to summer feeding sites in the
Bering, Beaufort and Chuchki seas. For more than two centuries until the
early 1900s, these leviathans were targets of commercial hunting vessels'
insatiable hunt for meat, oil and baleen.
How times have changed. Since these giants of the deep were protected by
international law in 1947, they have made a miraculous recovery from the
brink of annihilation to their status as a viable population of more than
20,000 individuals. Each year, thousands of whale-watching faithfuls flock
to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island during the
mid-March peak of migration to catch a glimpse of the 15-metre-long, 30,000
kilogram grey whales as they swim past.
Between March 16 and 31, visitors to the 16th annual Pacific Rim Whale
Festival will witness the migration of the eastern North Pacific population,
which represents the world's only significant remaining grey whale group.
(The western North Pacific group teeters at an all-time low of 100
individuals, while North Atlantic grey whales are extinct.) To complement
the spectacle of migrating whales, festival organizers will set up viewing
stations along the route and assemble more than 100 events, from art
exhibits and nature talks to First Nations' celebrations at locations in
Tofino, Ucluelet and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Scientists will also
be on hand from the Vancouver Aquarium and the B.C. Cetacean Sightings
Network for interpretive sessions.
For more information on the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, visit:
www.pacificrimwhalefestival.org
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